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Loudoun County School Board, Legislative, Audit and Policy Committee Meeting, Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 47m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1058004190?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-16. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:05] Good evening. This is April Chandler calling to order the Legislative Audit and Policy Committee meeting for February 18, 2025. We always begin with public comment, but there are no in-person public comment speakers for this evening, so we will move on to our first agenda item, which is Item 3.01, Approval of the December 17, 2024 Draft Minutes.

[00:00:30] May I please have a motion to approve the December 17, 2024 meeting minutes? So moved. Thank you, Mrs. Donahue, or Ms. Donahue. May I have a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye.

[00:00:46] Seeing none opposed, the motion passes unanimously with all committee members present. We will now move on to our discussion items for this evening. Tonight, we will begin with item 4.01, the legislative update. This update aims to inform the LAMP committee and the Loudoun community on the landscape, important issues and potential impacts of bills currently being considered in the general assembly session John Sutton coordinator for government relations will be presenting mr. Sutton the floor is yours thank you madam chair much appreciated to you in the committee I'll get I'll get right into it it's

[00:01:22] been a full week of committee hearings for the 2025 regular session the Virginia General Assembly focused on this week on reviewing legislation approved by the opposition chamber with the deadline to report bills from committees presented last Monday and adjournment approaching next Saturday February 22nd legislators are working swiftly to conclude all of their business and finalize a unified budget to send to the governor's desk conferees have been named and they're they're getting together to work out the differences

[00:01:59] between the house and the Senate versions of the budget bill specifically the senate conferee is led by louise lucas uh and the house is led by uh luke torian and so that should be it should be a very interesting uh wrap up this week to see how that progresses i think there's a general optimism that both sides can reach a consensus before the adjournment on the 22nd there is always uh obviously notable examples of differences including uh included in language in the Senate in the House budget and while there are several

[00:02:38] projects throughout to Virginia that have received universal and and generally accepted funding they're still working as we're meeting today on those on those particular those conferees are continuing to meet some of the highlights of the LCPS priority legislation which I thought was important delegate Martinez, House Bill 1769, related to chronic absenteeism, was turned into a work group to be led by the Department of Education.

[00:03:11] Chairman Van Valkenburg, the Public Education Subcommittee, liked the purpose behind the bill, but felt that it would be a disincentive for school divisions to try to keep parents from pulling their kids out of school. The bill, as amended, reported from the Senate Education and Health Committees by a vote of 13 to 2.

[00:03:33] And if you're interested in seeing that language, I'd be more than happy to afford any language that you're interested in seeing to you after this meeting. Delegate Reeser's House Bill 1936 related to the Department of Education creating an index for professional development training passed out of the Senate Education and Health Committee unopposed and was referred to the Senate Finance Committee and Appropriations.

[00:04:00] Delegate Cree Deeds lauded that bill as a great idea and made a motion to report the bill, which was really, really good for the committee. Subsequently passed it unanimously. And again, I can send you that language. I'll be more than happy to send the committee that language to you after this discussion.

[00:04:23] The House Bill 2053, the Literacy Audit Bill, Delegate Research's Literacy Audit Bill, reported from the Senate Education and Health Committee, was also referred to the Senate Finance. And as a reminder, the audit was changed to a self-audit to offset the fiscal impact on the bill.

[00:04:45] And while there was relatively a small fiscal impact of about $50,000 on the bill, that was favorably afforded 10 to 4. So that's positive as well. I'm going to highlight something that seems out of place, but believe me, it's not.

[00:05:06] I just want to let you know that the Fairfax Casino legislation died that included Fairfax County among the localities eligible for casino development. The reason I brought that up is because casinos tend to be a motivator for some communities to increase opportunities for educational support and educational funding.

[00:05:31] And that was pretty significant because it kind of lays the groundwork for communities to really reassess whether they want to go through the process of putting casinos in their areas solely for the purpose of a tax incentive for school funding.

[00:05:54] Portsmouth was a good example. They have an agreement with that particular casino. I think it generates upwards of $15 million for their school division. But with that comes a lot of issues. And so the Fairfax casino legislation dying, I thought that was significant to let you know, just in case you were interested in whether other surrounding communities were laying the groundwork for them.

[00:06:22] I think following the official adjournment on Saturday, the focus will shift to the governor who may propose recommendations or veto legislation. It's as simple as that. The reconvene session, where the General Assembly will continue the governor's actions, is set for April 2nd.

[00:06:47] And so there we have the update. I did I did want to also point out that a house bill 2686 was amended by the Senate and passed 14 zero that requires school boards to create a policy with the criteria necessary for students grades 5 through 8 to enroll in advance accelerated mathematics it sets a minimum criteria it also requires local school divisions to send data to the Department of Education annually and then

[00:07:21] the DOE will post that on their website so as that progresses and gets more and gets more fleshed out over the next couple days I'll certainly be more than willing to let the committee know how that's gonna impact impact this particular division for the legislative update on my end unless you have something else well thank you mr. Sutton are there any questions or comments from the committee no thank you so much seeing none we'll move on to our next

[00:07:59] next item which is 4.02 legislative activities timeline this update reviews the timeline of various legislative activities in 2025 through 2026 and establishes the timeline for development of the 2026 LCPS school board excuse me Loudoun County School Board legislative program again mr. Sutton will be presenting the floor is yours first of all some takeaways this year's session And we've really been given a preview of what I would describe as sort of a new normal for the session.

[00:08:36] In other words, a heightened increased operational tempo. And what I mean by that is the tempo forces us into being very prescient in identifying key deadlines, key legislative actions, analyze progress of priorities.

[00:08:52] You know, it forces us to create a shorter step in consulting with our relative, with our stakeholders. And basically ensuring that all necessary steps are included within appropriate time frames and considers factors that may lead to something as overcoming future legislative hurdles.

[00:09:15] My point today was that given the increased pace, sort of our needs and the needs of this division, I'm hoping with your help and your blessing that after the session ends, with the committee's help, we can review and update our current legislative calendar.

[00:09:33] review i think ensures that the calendar process remains effective it remains efficient and accessible and i think as calendars are now increasingly updated rapidly and as online platforms that we're using are faster and faster and more effective i think there's a need to sort of adapt our what i would call our more traditional legislative processes to better accommodate these needs and i'm hoping to work obviously with the committee with your blessing on these processes i think again we can improve the legislative calendar improve transparency for all involved accountability and participation i believe ultimately it leads to more informed

[00:10:11] decision making on the part of all of us and it creates a more streamlined inclusive and responsive system that pretty much benefits all our needs so i'm hoping that you can give me permission to start that process and work with the three of you to and and are obviously our professional stakeholders here to to work on that over the next couple months if that's okay with you thank you mr. Sutton so is it fair to say that a reasonable takeaway from that is that we should start on this as soon as possible

[00:10:43] well I mean I will start as soon as you tell me to start well I certainly feel comfortable with that absolutely let's go okay right are there any questions or comments from the committee no all right well thank you mr. Sutton next we will move on to our final discussion item for tonight 4.03 office of the auditor general activities timeline mr. Ahmad woods the auditor general will review the audit activities plan for the coming year with the committee mr. woods the

[00:11:21] floor is yours thank you good evening madam chair members of the committee today I'd like to present a quick schedule of the upcoming oag activities and key dates for 2025. Here's a quick look at the major events, the timeline for the first half, as well as some key dates beginning in August.

[00:11:42] Starting in February 18th at the next LAMP committee, or this is today's committee meeting, starting April 29th, two committee meetings from now, we will provide our OAG quarterly update and we'll present the status of our current audits as well as our current status.

[00:11:59] Followed by May 27th, we will present the OAG draft audit plan to give you all a quick view or to give you guys time to go over and plan for our 2026 audit plan. In June 27th, we will take action here in the committee to approve that plan if we are ready for that plan to be presented and approved.

[00:12:23] Once that plan is approved, we will present that plan for the fiscal year 26 audit committee to the full board at its June 24th board meeting. Beginning in the second half, starting in August, we will prepare our OAG quarterly update.

[00:12:39] We'll provide that update for audit activity following April through August. Followed by September, we will present our OAG Annual Audit Report here first, followed by a full report provided to the full board in December of 2025.

[00:12:59] Sorry, October is when we'll present the annual report. That annual report will go to the full board. I see it's not really up here, but once it goes to – oh, it is on there.

[00:13:16] just getting my eyes confused there so in September we will present the annual report to the committee and then we'll follow that up by presenting that and report to the full committee we will end the year in August in December with the OAG quarterly status thank you thank you mr. Woods with that we will move on to our information items beginning with item 5.01 policy 2510 school community communications and community involvement this policy defines the two-way

[00:13:55] communication strategy between the school board and the community this policy is being brought before the committee in response to inquiries made at the school board retreat regarding reviewing the protocols around member newsletters and school allocations miss Natalie Allen chief of communications and community engagement will be presenting miss Allen the floor is yours thank you all so really just like mrs. Chandler said we're bringing this board just to kind of start a conversation um as you all know the school board is who drives policy and there were conversations around especially section d of this policy related to school board

[00:14:34] members electronic newsletters and so we just wanted to bring this forward to see if there was an appetite for changes etc and you know to really just open a discussion related to if there were any needed changes because this policy was updated in 2021 and so we're close to it being on the five year cycle anyway and figured you know since it was brought up we might as well have a discussion here thank you miss allen are there any questions from the committee

[00:15:09] i'm sure thank you madam chair and thank you miss allen i appreciate you bringing this forward in response to the conversation that we had at the retreat uh personally i feel pretty comfortable with where we are with our newsletter protocols i appreciate so much and literally had no idea how much goes into the staff side of making sure that we have everything running and getting one out once a month is is a task so i know that that is definitely involved in terms of sending it to other districts i mean or districts within they're posted on our website each one that we have

[00:15:47] people have access to finding them I know multiple board members use their social media as a platform to spread their newsletter if they might have followers from other districts and for me personally I really do want my constituents to read what's going on in Leesburg and so I feel that having eight more newsletters a month in their inbox could be cumbersome so I am comfortable with where we are with this and I feel like we have checked all those boxes but That is my opinion.

[00:16:14] Thank you, Ms. Chernoff. Ms. Donahue? Thank you, Chair Chandler. I also am appreciative that staff has put the effort into responding to the concerns that were raised at our retreat. And I don't know that I'm in the best position to be giving feedback since, as the at-large member, I have the entire county anyway.

[00:16:39] But that being said, I sympathize with my fellow members who expressed concerns over the confusion that may result in the public of who is my school board member when problems arise.

[00:16:55] But I do have a little bit of concern about some of the red line language in the added paragraph on pages 113 to 121. Again, I don't know that I'm in the best position because everyone is my constituent.

[00:17:12] But, you know, starting with saying school board members will be responsible for responding to communications received from those constituents residing within their respective voting districts. I have a couple of concerns there. One is, so if a board member is not responding to inquiries from a constituent, does that mean that board member is going to be subject to discipline by the rest of the board?

[00:17:32] Because that is something that happens on occasion, right? If a board member is not following policy, that would be a concern. And also, I mean, sometimes constituents choose intentionally to reach out to board members who are not for their district because they either have a personal relationship with that member or because other reasons.

[00:17:58] They just, because of a committee issue, because they might have a reason, they might think that a certain board member would be more receptive to an inquiry about a particular issue than a different board member. And I'm just curious, like, how those kind of situations would fit into this language that we have here.

[00:18:21] I mean, those things being said, I agree 100% with Ms. Chernoff. Like, nobody wants nine more newsletters a month in their inbox. Correct. Like, we all have kids in LCPS. Like, I agree. I don't want nine more. Although that's an interesting thing because I don't get, as an aside, the district that i live in for voting purposes is not the district where my kids go to school so when the newsletters go out i receive my own and i receive the just i receive the newsletter from the board member who is the member for the district where i live correct which is not where

[00:18:59] my kids go to school right and i still haven't actually figured out how i get that newsletter because i would like to receive that newsletter ask us and we can make that happen for you so I can make that happen for you that's not a problem so happy to do that but that's correct so I did confirm that we use the school locator function and that's as far as the websites are concerned as well that was part of the discussion I did in a myth bust the piece about if you have special permission a special permission student that you're listed on the website that's

[00:19:35] not true I don't know that might have been previously true I'm not sure maybe historically but not on you know we've changed to a new website platform and when that shift happened we made sure that the folks who were listed the school board members who are listed are those who represent those schools and there is overlap so it's not just one school board member sometimes like there are times where correct a lot of times there are three so because so our at-large member Miss Donahue is listed on every page but typically there are two

[00:20:14] to three board members because there are a lot of schools who have overlapping lines related to voting districts sure for additional context I believe this in In particular, it was responsive to Dr. Rasheed's comments made at the January 24th, 2025 retreat to provide clarity to both board members and community members regarding board members' response

[00:20:52] to communications received by their constituents, specifically with reference to those board members listed on school websites. - And if I could ask one follow-up, Ms. Allen, related to my statement that I don't get my newsletter for where my kids go to school.

[00:21:12] Is there a way for members of the community who do not have children who are current students to sign up to receive newsletters if they would like to do so? I mean, many of us make the links available through our social medias, but if there are individuals who would like to receive the newsletters directly to their email inbox, is there an opportunity or avenue for them to sign up for that?

[00:21:33] So, it's not as simple as a subscribe button to that point, basically, because what we do is take, just like it says in the policy, we take the location of, for example, Algonquian District, and every school that is in Algonquian District gets sent Mrs. Chandler's newsletter, for example.

[00:21:58] But all that to say, if a parent raises the question and wants to be sent that newsletter, I do believe there's a way for us to make them part of that list. But we would need them to physically request that of us, which I know is kind of a cumbersome process.

[00:22:15] That said, every single newsletter is available on the school division's website. So every single newsletter that Ms. Chernoff has sent out is available on her page on the website. So that might be a place where even if they're not getting it directly to their inbox, they're very easy to access.

[00:22:36] Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Donahue. I will also add I agree with my colleagues in terms of the volume of newsletters. It's consistently feedback that I receive from my constituents is that they appreciate our efforts at communication and would like them to be perhaps a little bit more streamlined.

[00:22:59] So as to focus on the pertinent information and not to overwhelm more than anything. I think that people are genuinely happy to see the increased efforts at clear and concise communication, but would not probably be happy to receive more just based on what I've heard from my constituents.

[00:23:29] That said, I do find Ms. Donahue's question about a consequence to be an interesting question. Mr. Allen, is there any perceived legal consequence? Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think any legal consequence or any consequence at all is contemplated in this policy.

[00:23:49] Perhaps alternative language such as are generally expected to respond to. I do hear Ms. Donahue's concern and that we'll be responsible for asiology, but that's up for discretionary wordsmithing by the committee.

[00:24:11] Thank you for that, Mr. Allen. I often will come back to the idea that, of course, every elected official is accountable to their constituency and will face consequences on Election Day should they choose not to be responsive.

[00:24:27] But I do appreciate that clarification. And I would love to hear from the committee if that proposed language would be something you'd like to see before we bring this back for action. I think it would be helpful.

[00:24:48] So school board members are generally expected to respond to communications versus what it says here. Is that what we're thinking? What Mr. Allen just shared? Just as a clarification, yes.

[00:25:04] Well, that's what I offered as an alternative for consideration. yeah I wanted to just add to this because there's also something that's really not said here which is something that I know we've talked about in board norms and it did briefly come up at the retreat a little bit also and I apologize I was kind of thinking that this was a subset under the newsletters but this is a whole separate section E so now I now I'm realizing this is emails and other ways that people might communicate with us and I am very grateful to Miss Donahue for her comments because it made me immediately think there are just instances where people reach out to different people I

[00:25:44] mean I'm getting a ton of emails right now about the grading policy because that's very prevalent to the work that we're doing in committee a lot of those people do not reside in my district and I am freely responding so because they're coming directly to me so I think that there also needs to be some definition or if we're I just don't want this language to feel like this is the only thing that you can communicate about because I know that we have talked about when it comes to the full board you know the chair often responds on behalf of the board and I believe it was Dr. Deans who raised that as maybe something we might want to revisit and and I know I struggle

[00:26:22] with those lines as well at times Miss Allen and I talked I've been invited out to a program to talk about restraint and seclusion this Friday and all of us were invited but I had time in my schedule so I reached back out and if I were not allowed to do so that would that would be weird it's honestly so I am I'm wondering too if we just need a little bit more spesies best oh I'm gonna try yes thank you on that in terms of defining what communications we're talking about that it's not only limited to our voting districts and that sometimes there are outside people that

[00:27:01] But, you know, Dr. Rasheed did mention, like, they're all of our people, you know. Like, we care about everyone in the district. We're making decisions on behalf of them. So I would agree that this needs additional work. I was thinking about it in terms of newsletters, and I was pretty comfortable with that, thinking Neesburg would probably be the only people that would reach out.

[00:27:21] But that makes more sense. Well, can I ask? I mean, is the section necessary? Do we think it's needed? Right. the question the piece about you know the websites and things obviously we can take care of operationally that's easy and it's already the case but you know as long as the school board kind of gives us that thumbs up related to how it's already being done I think it makes sense

[00:27:56] and we can test that myth that we talked about or I think the other option was potentially listing all board members and it sounded like in the room that that probably wasn't the best idea anyway And if you were to go to visit any school's website, while those board members are listed, if you click, it takes you to a page where you can also contact the full board if you so choose.

[00:28:22] So you, as a constituent, have options. So you know who your representatives are, but if you wanted to talk about the grading policy or something like that, you could, say, email the full board so that folks know. I appreciate that feedback, and I think it's interesting to contemplate, and I'm not sure that I would want to put anything into policy that could encumber a future board that might choose to have different norms in much the same way that our board has agreed to a certain set of norms.

[00:29:01] And, you know, I think those are all matters of respect, and protocol should be more flexible. So that, I guess, is something that the committee members can consider before we bring this back for action if we want to improve on this section in any way or strike it.

[00:29:27] I do appreciate especially the willingness to – oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Bergen? No, I'm just joining in on the conversation. What I recall might have been the genesis for this paragraph was at the retreat, as I'm new to Loudoun County, there were some board members saying, Why am I listed on so many different websites?

[00:29:53] And I think what we were trying to do was get some clarity about which school websites each of you would be listed on. So if it's in your voting district, you would be listed on those school websites. If it's not in your voting district, right now I believe our practice is if you have one student who's on special permission, that's what was stated.

[00:30:14] That's what they thought, but that's not accurate. So how is a board member listed on school websites other than within school? That's the only way they're listed on a school website. So we use school locator function as far as who represents that school, that's who's listed on the website at this current time.

[00:30:41] I was curious, so I went back to my team to just double check on that related to the special permission piece. it might have been a practice with the previous school websites because the other thing to remember is that before we changed over to the new system new division website and new school websites it was not consistent so schools were very much in charge of their own site it was templated it has become since then templated so there's a template for the footer that didn't

[00:31:17] needs to exist that might be something that happened in the past but it's not okay so we've addressed it administratively but maybe we don't address it in policy if you all in agreement about really a dog in the fight i think that's why i recall from the conversation how that ended up maybe trying to be captured in policy but we don't feel like there's a need to capture it in policy as long as this will live into future administrations in future

[00:31:47] Oh, there we go.

[00:32:25] Yeah, just took a minute. Thank you for your patience, everyone. Well, we deal with our technical challenges. At the beginning of this decade, the magisterial districts in Loudoun were changed after the census and the goal was to make the population concentration more equalized so that everybody would approximately have between 50 and 55,000 constituents in each magisterial district the school district lines may have been drawn along more geographic considerations and that

[00:32:59] may be where the disconnect occurred I know for myself personally I have a tiny piece of delegate martinez's district which is just outside of what's traditionally been algonkian and that means that i have a set of schools that are in ashburn i definitely represent those constituents but it's probably confusing to the greater community to have me listed on that website just an interesting component of the conversation and that's a great example though we've i mean with um with the henrietta mountain ribbon cuttings we were like wait there are

[00:33:38] multiple school board representatives who should talk you know and those kinds of things and it's exactly you know anecdotal stories like that talking about right exactly exactly um i do feel that since uh dr rasheed brought forward the suggestion that i would really like to um have a conversation with her offline to make sure that any proposed changes that we bring forward are in line with what she was hoping to see in terms of this conversation i just i think it would be valuable to make sure and be very interested to see how this conversation

[00:34:16] continues to progress with that said are there any more questions or comments from the committee then we will move on to 5.02 policy 2320 school health advisory board this policy establishes guidelines for the school health advisory board and miss allen will be presenting again oh i'm sorry oh i'm so sorry okay i might have read it wrong on the agenda and that's fine we're so lucky to have a miss allen and a mr allen

[00:34:52] and we'll be happy to hear right no relation right um from mr allen this evening so with that mr allen the floor is yours thank you madam chair this policy comes before the committee today upon its five-year review which would be pursuant to school board policy 2540 which otherwise needs to be completed by november 2025 given the last time that this policy was updated was november 2020 before you this evening you have three proposed revisions from staff for the committee's consideration the first item is a clarification on line 11 which specifies that the reference

[00:35:32] there to board members pertains to members of the school health advisory board rather than the school board the second item also offers a clarification specifically with respect to the requirement under the virginia freedom of information act that any person appointed to a public body or extension thereof shall be provided with a copy of the virginia freedom of information act within two weeks following their appointment and for members to read and become familiar with the provisions thereof it just offers that clarification um and that's a requirement under the virginia freedom of information act and with respect to the final item in reviewing this policy from a

[00:36:11] legal lens the office of division council reviewed the policy in tandem with virginia code section 22.1 275.1 which is the virginia statute that provides that each school board may establish a school health advisory board and in doing so we noted that the applicable code section provides that the relevant procedures a school health advisory board recommends to a school board should take into consideration the size and staffing of the schools and therefore we proposed tracking such language from the code and inserting that language on lines 28 and 29. Happy to entertain any questions.

[00:36:48] Thank you Mr. Allen. Are there any questions or comments from me either? Well thank you so much. With no further discussion and without objection these information items will return as action items next month if you wanted more time related to the communications policy we have plenty so if you decide that you need more time to just make it an information item again or whatever sure um just want to declare okay thank you miss allen

[00:37:22] any considering okay um all right with that we have completed the items on our agenda for this meeting. Is there any new business? Thank you, Chair Chandler. I wanted to follow up on some discussion that we had at our previous full board meeting regarding student behavior discipline appeals, which currently under our current policies are heard only by members of the SBAT

[00:37:58] committee and that is is arranged that way under policy 2310 2310 which establishes the committees so as I mentioned at our previous board meeting I was curious if there is an appetite among my colleagues to make any potential changes to that system I can envision potential reasons why we should leave it as it is but i can also and i don't know what the reason is why it is that way in loudon

[00:38:34] i'm aware that some districts follow the same procedure and others don't others hear those appeals on a rotating basis as we currently hear our administrative appeals and i can envision some reasons why it might be good to have the opportunity for the rest of the board members to be able to sit on those appeals and my understanding is that ms labelle has gone to great efforts to try and accommodate allowing other board members to sit on those discipline appeals when possible but that is at her discretion under the

[00:39:10] terms of our current policies so I wanted to initiate the conversation of is there do my colleagues have thoughts on should we keep that system in place as it is or should we consider making such that's my new business thank you Thank you, Ms. Donahue. I'm always open to having a conversation. I think the question it comes down to for me is whether or not students receive the most just outcomes, if there is consistent leadership on the committee with approximately the same people serving, or if rotating the committee members brings a fresh eye.

[00:39:48] I don't know if staff has the ability to sort of offer us any context in that, that maybe we can look a little further afield. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm happy to take a stab at this.

[00:40:04] From what I recall from Ms. Scanlon's resuscitation at the school board meeting on Thursday night, I personally, nor does she have any institutional knowledge as to how that came to be SBAC's practice. But I think with regard to the subject matter that SBAC committee deals with in terms of looking at the policies, They're very familiar with enforcement of the policies or student discipline, so that might be some thought.

[00:40:36] And the other thought, for one consideration, is that it provides a consistent lens for the application of the discipline appeals. - Thank you, Mr. Allen. Ms. Chernoff, on this matter of new business.

[00:40:52] - Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for bringing it up, Ms. Donahue. I actually am very open to this dialogue. I think the way that we handle the point you made about special permission um and just how much i know speak for myself how much i learned from that process about the policy of special permission in order to be able to make informed decisions going forward and i think that that would apply to the school board with the discipline policies i would like that experience i think there could be some value in rotating it i also acknowledge that there's probably also value which i think warrants a conversation amongst us further

[00:41:29] And I would really love to bring those different parties who are involved in those processes to the table so that we could have the experts and we could really hash it out. I don't know if it would be just a discussion or if we would actually just review it through a policy or however you want to do that.

[00:41:45] But I'm fully supportive. I think it's a dialogue worth having for sure as we are starting to now rotate on and have a chance to see what that's like. Well, if we're in agreement, I would be amenable to having this on as a discussion item at the next meeting, and we can see if we can talk through the right path forward.

[00:42:05] And then, Ms. Chernoff, new business? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have mentioned this on the dais a couple of times, and it is sort of a personal internal struggle that I am having in terms of how regulations relate to policy and what the processes are and protocols are or should be if there is a lack of those things for us as a school board especially as it relates to new policy and new regulations that are developed for the first time I know that the board we get updates on what regulations there are and what those updates are and then

[00:42:42] I believe after that is sort of been reviewed by the school board for a certain amount of time, then those go public and are operationalized. For me, thinking about policy and what I've learned over the last year, there's a lot of interpretation of policy.

[00:43:00] We have Mr. Allen for a reason. Sometimes I'll think this is clearly falls under this policy and, you know, or this is a violation of that policy. And then as I do more digging, because i am not a lawyer it really turns out that it isn't and so i think there is some kind of oversight that i would like to see and i would like to gain clarity on that process in terms of how we can have oversight i'm not looking to get in the weeds on every regulation as we do with policy i do not think that that is our lane clearly we have our superintendent who can execute those things at a

[00:43:38] high level but I think when what I'm wondering is what is the process and how does the public know about regulations and how do our educators know what these regulations are and how those things are going to be operationalized and how it might affect them and their classrooms and the different things that are coming out so we've also had conversations on the school board where new regulations have been updated in tandem with policies and then there's times where that doesn't happen so I guess I'm just also asking to see if there's an appetite i i did look through policy to see if policy 2010 where it talks about our authority

[00:44:15] and powers and duties as a school board could be a place for in section c there could maybe be a subsection bullet that just talks addresses what regulations are and how they work a little bit more clearly but it could also be a discussion or work session in the future that involves all the staff and how they do regulations because i'm not quite sure i know what happens after that baton has passed so really just looking for my own clarity and to make sure that we have a consistent process for how the board is involved with regulations um I

[00:44:52] would be happy to weigh in and again as always I'm always up for a discussion what I find myself struggling with in terms of coming to terms with this conversation is whether or not it's appropriate for this committee or if it would be better served as a full school board work session just because it's not as if regulation only originates here so that I mean that's my initial reaction to it but I have also found especially in HRTD when something that's procedural is presented where we might

[00:45:31] not necessarily have a deep knowledge or context it's it's very helpful to have the opportunity to learn about it so I could see it going either way but for benefit of time and efficiency it might be more efficient to do it as work session with the whole school that's just my my personal opinion i would be amenable to that i'm just sort of looking for an avenue for us and like i said i was looking more at the policies that apply to this committee and one of them does outline that

[00:46:09] you know our job is to revise and adopt policy so i thought maybe a subsection in there because there is a bunch of bullets but maybe we can look at it and decide but i wanted to put it on the table as something that I'm sort of wrestling with but I would be more than happy if we can find space in a full board meeting I know that's also an issue for our crew so yeah but I would be open to that as well because it obviously affects all of us and I do think as it's rolling out in our different committees different standards are being set for different committees and I want to make sure that that's equitable and fair to every board member and that there's a process that we have to follow that makes sense for us

[00:46:46] consistency yeah across the board and would you like to bring forward the policy that what I'm sorry the board is is it 2010 to work on in committee it would require your support I would be supportive of that okay yeah so we can put there as a discussion item for next month as well perfect 2010 all right well seeing no further new business the meeting is adjourned thank you for coming out and be safe going home

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